this was my 3rd birthday really cool

Part of a multi-band, 3-gig booking, this is the first of two nights at the Veterans Memorial in Santa Rosa (with the third night nearby, on the Russian River, at Rio Nido). It was directly after the free show in Central Park. The Dead were "Special Guests" and performed a single, sit down set

Ole Slew Foot is the Howard Crockett bluegrass standard and was played nine times, right after Jer bought his pedal steel (the apparent impetus for the string of country-tinged sit-down sets). It was popularized by Johnny Horton but Jer probably knew the Bill Monroe version. Mama Tried is only the 4th one and High Time the 3rd one. These are all still embryonic and even Dupree's is a bit shaky. Familiar ground helps Me & My Uncle. Casey Jones is also the 3rd one and has the mid-69 intro that was dropped/rewritten by September, and which is quite long here. Dire Wolf, however, kicks butt (that it's officially released hints there's a clean show in the vault). At the time it started with Jer on Pedal and Bobby singing! The Dark Star is one of 1969's standouts (no easy delineation). At 17min Phil tries Lovelight and when nobody bites it goes another 9min. With several cool sections, it's up there with 2/11, 4/27 & 2/27. The rest is average '69 with the 5th Green Green Grass (Porter Wagoner's then-recent song). It's All Over Now Baby Blue has a cut. This is the Dead trying something different but not having it completely down yet.

Grade : C
Overall = 2½ Stars

Highlights:
Dire Wolf - A short, unique take right before it morphed again
Dark Star - A whole made better by its movements

SOURCES: The samaritano_20547 has the best balance and clarity, and the least hiss. Dire Wolf is a bonus on Workingman's.

whhshew! And I thought this was a shabby concert...

So, for some time since the previous year, it seems the SBDs have been getting brighter and hissier. Was this the direction the sound system was going, trying to get rid of impedance and so on...?

Because if so, I really like their early '68 sound system a lot better. I find that if I slant the EQ down from 32 hz to 16K (about +3 to -3 respectively), it goes from a three to a five-star show. The Dark Star in particular is crazily experimental.

According to research at Lost Live Dead Tom Ralston drums along with BK for the first few tunes.

http://lostlivedead.blogspot.com/2009/07/june-27-1969-sonoma-county-fairgrounds.html

starting mellow and moving into a full steam roar!!! I love bobby on the Dire Wolf Vocals!! Great Show, Great Sound, Great Set List! I give it a 5 Star Rating

Correct me if i'm wrong but this sounds like the performance included on the remastered bonus track version of Workingman's Dead. This is my favorite Dire Wolf ever - just gorgeous pedal steel playing!

This was the first Dead concert I ever attended. I managed to attend the Be-In at the Polo Grounds with a friend and his family three or four years previously, and that marked my movement from 14 year old doofus to cool pothead. But this was my first Dead concert.

Five friends and I - all guys - went and were blown away. There were maybe 200 - 300 people at the concert, in the big, old cavernous vets auditorium. I don't remember much about the music - more the experience. My friends and I sat down about 20' from the stage and smoked hash all night, periodically getting up to dance, gazing with maniacal gleams into each other's eyes - WE'RE AT A DEAD CONCERT!!!

I remember the light show and the darkness of the auditorium, the women dancing - so far away for this 17 year old - and the headiness of knowing I'd finally arrived...

love the setlist and the dire wolf is absolutely simply the best version ive ever heard bobby singing lead and garcia on the pedal steel great slewfoot and mama tried u can tell they were just havin a great time

WOW, this is a song i've seen on setlists but never had the tape. What a hot number!Bobby is full of confidence. I think this is when "Ace" finally emerged. The show is an interesting look at a band in transition. Hearing TC's drippy chords with the Dead's growing country sound really is Great American Cosmic Music!

new sounds mixed with classic primal 1968-mid 1969 sound.

This is a great show that shows the range of the Dead's emerging power in 1969. Just the amazing and jarring shift from the potent drive of "The Eleven" to the country-folksy twang "Green Green Grass of Home" exemplifies the two faces of the Dead, the two sides of the Steal Your Face Head-- the ying and yang of the brain split by the lightening bolt of brilliance, of lifegiving and death-taking.
For sure, the show reveals the best of both the emerging country Dead and the established psychedelic Dead. And this is great country rock, played lovingly as country rock was emerging in the ashes of Psychedelia in '69. The Dead were at the country-rock forefront with the Byrds, Burritos and others. Yet this is also grand psychedelic musical fare. While there is certainly no "ordinary" "Dark Star" in the canon of the live Dead, this one is familiar '69 "Dark Star" stuff but hardly "ordinary"; the fast pulsating jam of the song's second half, which mutates at times into "The Other One" and hints at other familiar melodies and rhythms, is outstanding and makes this "Dark Star" a standout. An energetic Stephen/William Tell and a nuanced but abbreviated Eleven follow.

Others have mentioned the groovy vibe that gives this show a special feel; Jerry's steel guitar is a treat; and the "Baby Blue" encore is elegiac, soulful and gorgeous(listen for the gospelly organ sound there -- Is this TC, not sure?). But it's the dual country/psychadelic communal brain of this show that makes it a must for downloading.

Man, DL this just for the Casey Jones alone! Crazy early version w/a long-ish lead-in instrumental and groovy slower jams in the middle...they're obviously still in the "working out" stages of this classic and it's a total blast to hear this infant version...it still rocks, just in a different way than the well-known faster versions of later years.

As stated already the Dire Wolf is also a must have for the Jerry steel pedal and Bobby vocals.

This is one of those "just when you think you've heard it all" shows...One star off only for some minor sound problems/anomalies but well worth the DL.

Slewfoot is priceless! But Bill loses the time badly in Dupree! Yikes! 5 stars anyway for Slewfoot.

When I first popped the CD in, everything sounded great (there was also some history about it--Workingman's stuff, country music) except that the drums sounded off for the first few tunes- up to "sittin", actually. something just didnt click, not sure what... maybe billy and mickey had to get their "country legs", so to speak. but, when "sitting" came on, it was back to good ole double drummin! boss man is smokin as usual.
Now that dark star!! bout what you'd expect from a 69 dark star, up till a bit after the first verse, when phil goes into lovelight. jerry and bobby catch on for a bit, so do mickey and bill, and tho the guitars and bass leave, the drums stay on that fierce beat. that rockin beat shows up again in st steven, making it the coolest, strangest and probably best st steven i've heard from that era. (if you dont understand what i mean by beat listen to the show or think of puttin the alligator drum part into these songs)
Back to the country stuff. in "green green grass of home" the drums hook on to the FEEL and it sounds like the boys have been playin that stuff together for years. same goes for baby blue (truly beautifully played) great show, despite the shakey start

The drumming is especially flowing and fun. 1969 was a vintage year for creative Dead playing.

Good recording for the period. Slewfoot suffers from some technical problems, keeping it from a 5 star rating, but it has good energy and a great setlist.

I had this one on tape on generation 2, but this one does sound quite good, espeically for it's time, minus a free mixing details in part of Slewfoot. This show I believe is required in any Deadheads library because it shows the Grateful Dead were an everyone band. It's a wonderful ride from start to finish. Santa Rosa is a perfect place for it to be as well. ;)

The country influence coming into is felt strong this date.. a rare Slewfoot (with Garcia on petal speed), a few then 'new' songs of Mama Tried, High Time, Dupree and Uncle, followed by an early Uncle John's that has a very nice laid back tropical feel to it. Next up it's Dire Wolf, with Bobby doing the vocals, Jerry back on petal steel! Then going waaaaaay back on the psychedelic side for a Dark Star > St. Stephen > The Eleven. What a great Dark Star it is too! ..then suddenly, The Eleven ends and it's wha?? Green Green Grass Of Home?? Woah, wild, WEIRd!! Baby Blue encore sounds like a very one from what's there (cut in the middle and before the end) In many ways, Baby Blue could be a clue to the crowd that "not only are we still your psychedelic favorates, but now we want you to dig our country twang too!"

This is a great show. I am happy to have the CD-R upgrade from my tape. But I must admit, although the sound quality here is good, my tape sounds better. The sound is more full and just as crisp on my cassette. The intro is great: "From good ole san francisco, the good ole grateful dead". The slewfoot is a great song only played a handful of times. Jerry plays pedal steal on slewfoot, green grass, as well as dire wolf, which lets bobby steal the vocals on dire wolf. The dark star is also very impressive. This is a must have for the summer of 1969.

This is a show I keep going back to. The first half is a casual, laid back run through of some newer material (including a rare "Slewfoot", a very cool intro to an early "Casey Jones", and Bobby singing lead on "Dire Wolf")followed by a "Dark Star>St Stephen>Eleven" that kicks. Sound quality is very good overall (I got rid of my own cass>wav>CD copy, which was the best I'd heard until now).